Evaluation Criteria for Directory Software

Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services > 21. Directory-Enabling ExistingApplications

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Chapter 21. Directory-Enabling ExistingApplications

In Chapter 20, "Developing New Applications," we talked about developing new applications that can use your directory service. The basic idea is to leverage your deployed LDAP directory and bring its benefits to your users.

But what about existing applications? They can also benefit from being directory enabled. It is often harder to get people to use a new application than a modified one they already use. This is why it is often advantageous just to directory-enable an existing application instead of writing a new one. If the application to be modified has a split client/server, or "thin client," architecture, you may be able to LDAP-enable it by making changes only on the server side and thus avoid the need to deploy new software to end users. Most Web (HTML-based) applications can be LDAP enabled in this way.

The usual motivation for directory-enabling an existing application is to add new features that use LDAP, or to change an existing feature to use LDAP instead of an application-specific database or directory. By leveraging a deployed LDAP directory service, it is often possible to improve the end user experience and reduce system administration costs at the same time.

In the first section of this chapter, we detail why it makes sense to directory-enable an existing application. Then we discuss some techniques to help you directory-enable applications easily and successfully. In the last portion of the chapter, we present two concrete examples of directory-enabling existing applications. For information on SDKs and tools that can be used to integrate your applications with LDAP, please see Chapter 20.



Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services,  2002 New Riders Publishing
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Index terms contained in this section

applications
          directory-enabling 2nd 3rd 4th
directories
          enabling applications 2nd 3rd 4th
enabling
          applications 2nd 3rd 4th
existing applications
          directory-enabling 2nd 3rd 4th

2002, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.



Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services
Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0672323168
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 1997
Pages: 245

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